Noria C. Green v. Mobis Alabama, LLC

613 F. App'x 788
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 26, 2015
Docket14-11328, 14-13204
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 613 F. App'x 788 (Noria C. Green v. Mobis Alabama, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noria C. Green v. Mobis Alabama, LLC, 613 F. App'x 788 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff Noria Green (“Green”) sued defendant MOBIS Alabama, LLC (“MO- *790 BIS”), a manufacturer of automobile parts, alleging: (1) violations of Title VII for sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and retaliation; (2) violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”); (3) violations of the Equal Pay Act; and (4) various state law tort claims. 1 The district court granted summary judgment to defendant MOBIS on all claims and later denied a Rule 60(b) motion to set aside the judgment in favor of MOBIS. Green appeals, arguing that: (1) the district court erred in granting summary judgment on Green’s retaliation claims brought under Title VII and the FMLA; (2) issue preclusion principles bar MOBIS from raising certain factual defenses to Green’s retaliation claims; (3) the district court erred in granting summary judgment on Green’s Equal Pay Act claim; and (4) the district court abused its discretion in denying Green’s Rule 60(b) motion. 2 After review of the parties’ briefs, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Alleged Sexual Harassment by Defendant Powers

On February 21, 2005, Plaintiff Green began working for defendant MOBIS. At the times relevant to this lawsuit, Green worked in the Paint Department at MO-BIS. In December 2010, Jeremy Powers began working the same shift in the Paint Department that Green worked. Powers was a Team Leader, which is an hourly-paid, ' non-supervisory position. In April 2011, Powers was promoted to a supervisor position, subject to a training period. Plaintiff Green alleged that, in January 2011, Powers began sexually harassing her by sending inappropriate text messages (including graphic pictures), staring at her, making untoward comments, and touching her inappropriately.

On April 6, 2011, Green anonymously reported Powers’s harassment through MOBIS’s UPLINK system, which consisted of suggestion boxes placed around the facility. It is undisputed that this method of reporting was not consistent with MO-BIS’s policies concerning the reporting of sexual harassment. Nonetheless, in late May or early June 2011, MOBIS sought a response and formal complaint from the still-anonymous UPLINK submission and MOBIS management also began an investigation into Powers’s behavior. During the investigation, MOBIS interviewed Green, among other employees, who verbally reported Powers’s harassment. On June 21, 2011, Powers was terminated. 3

B. EEOC Claim and Alleged Retaliation

Also on June 21, 2011, Green submitted her first charge of discrimination with the *791 Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (“EEOC”). Green alleged sex discrimination based on Powers’s sexual harassment as well as retaliation. That retaliation claim concerned Green’s alleged removal from a Team Leader position following her complaints of sexual harassment.

Following defendant Powers’s April 2011 promotion to Supervisor, plaintiff Green was told that she would become an “Active” or “Acting” Team Leader while Powers transitioned to the Supervisor position. Green was not told she would receive an increase in pay, and she did not receive formal training for the Team Leader position. Green performed some, but not all, of the functions of a Team Leader, and it was common for Team Members to perform the functions of Team Leaders when necessary, regardless of official status.

No official MOBIS records reveal Green was promoted to Team Leader. An unofficial telephone directory created by a receptionist identified Green as a Team Leader, but Green identified herself as a “Paint Color Tester” on a pre-request for FMLA leave and as a “Color Code Tester” on her EEOC intake form.

C. FMLA Authorization

In May 2011, Green requested and, in June 2011, received approval for leave under the FMLA to take her father to doctor’s visits. MOBIS requires employees to first substitute accrued vacation days for FMLA leave. MOBIS also confirms doctor’s appointments for employees who submit copies of doctor’s excuses, rather than originals, when requesting FMLA leave. MOBIS records include doctor’s notes for days in June 2011 for which Green used accrued vacation days.

In October 2011, after Green had exhausted accrued vacation days, MOBIS received a copy of a doctor’s note from Extended Arm Physicians referring Green’s father for an appointment on October 17-18, 2011. MOBIS’s FMLA coordinator (the “FMLA coordinator”) noticed that the doctor’s referral note for that appointment appeared identical to a note Green submitted for FMLA leave for her father’s doctor’s visits on June 21-22, 2011. The FMLA coordinator called the doctor’s office and verified that Green was not at the doctor’s office with her father on October 17-18, 2011. It is undisputed that plaintiff Green did not attend work on October 17, 2011, but rather attended a recital at her son’s school. It is also undisputed that she worked a twelve-hour shift on October 18, 2011.

At that time, the FMLA coordinator had no knowledge of Green’s harassment complaint against Powers. The FMLA coordinator did not participate in the investigation of that complaint or Powers’s termination.

On October 28, 2011, MOBIS managers met with Green to inform her that they were investigating what they believed were falsified doctor’s notes that Green had submitted for FMLA leave. On November 4, 2011, Green again met with MOBIS management. Green was informed that MOBIS had verified her doctor’s notes and that they believed she had provided falsified documents in requesting FMLA leave. MOBIS then informed Green that it was terminating her for falsifying doctor’s excuses. It is undisputed that, had Green provided forged doctor’s notes to MOBIS, this would have been grounds for termination.

Green claims that she submitted neither the June nor the October doctor’s notes to MOBIS and that she has no idea how MOBIS came to have doctor’s notes for her father in its possession. Green filed a second EEOC charge on November 28, *792 2011, alleging her termination’was retaliation for her filing a June 21, 2011 charge of discrimination based on Powers’s conduct.

D. Unemployment Benefits

Following her termination on November 4, 2011, Green filed for unemployment compensation benefits but was deemed ineligible on the grounds that she was terminated for misconduct. Green appealed this denial to the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations (the “ADIR”).

On December 16, 2011, the ADIR hearing officer conducted an initial telephone hearing, at which a MOBIS representative was present. The hearing officer, however, concluded that she could not hold the hearing without the doctor’s notes that had formed the basis of Green’s termination. The hearing officer then continued the hearing to a later, unspecified date. The hearing officer stated that her docket clerk would select a new date and time and that the parties would receive notice of the new date and time by mail.

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Bluebook (online)
613 F. App'x 788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noria-c-green-v-mobis-alabama-llc-ca11-2015.